Early Cyrillic alphabet
The original Cyrillic alphabet was a writing system developed in the
First Bulgarian Empire in the
tenth century to write the
Old Church Slavonic liturgical language.
With
Christianity having been made the official state religion in
864, Knyaz (Prince)
Boris I commissioned the creation of the alphabet.
Clement of
Ohrid developed the alphabet and named it after his teacher,
St. Cyril, a missionary who, along with his brother,
Methodius, is credited for inventing the
Glagolitic alphabet, an earlier
Slavic alphabet and an influence on this one. The alphabet also shows influence from the
Greek,
Latin, and even the
Hebrew alphabet.
In the following centuries, the Cyrillic alphabet adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reforms and political decrees. Variations of the
Cyrillic alphabet are used to write languages throughout
Eastern Europe and
Asia.
| Image | Unicode | Name
(Cyrillic) | Name
(transliterated) | Name
(IPA) | Transliteration | IPA | Notes |
|---|
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Azu.png |
| А а | АЗЪ | az" | | a | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Buky.png |
| Б б | БѸКИ | buky | | b | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Viedi.png |
| ' в | 'Ѣ"И | vědě | | v | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Glagoli.png |
| " г | "ЛА"ОЛИ | glagoli | | g | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Dobro.png |
| " д | "ОБРО | dobro | | d | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yesti.png |
| Є " | ѤСТЬ | estǐ | | e | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Zhiviete.png |
| Ж ж | ЖИ'ѢТЄ | živěte | | ž, zh | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Dzelo.png |
| | ЅѢЛО | dzělo | | dz, Z | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Zemlia.png |
| З з | ЗЄМЛIА | zeml'ja | | z | | See note 1 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Izhe.png |
| И и | ИЖЄ | iže | | i | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_I.png |
| І і / Ї ї | И | i | | i, I | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Kako.png |
| К к | КАКО | kako | | k | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Liudiye.png |
| Л л | ЛЮ"ИѤ | ljudije | | l | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Myslite.png |
| М м | МЫСЛИТЄ | mūslite | | m | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Nashi.png |
| Н н | НАШЬ | našǐ | | n | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Onu.png |
| О о | ОНЪ | on" | | o | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Pokoi.png |
| П п | ПОКОИ | pokoi | | p | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Ritsi.png |
| Р р | РЬЦИ | rǐci | | r | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Slovo.png |
| С с | СЛО'О | slovo | | s | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Tvrido.png |
| Т т | Т'РЬ"О | tvr̥do | | t | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Uku.png |
| Ѹ ѹ | ѸКЪ | uk" | | u | | See note 2 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Fritu.png |
| | ФРЬТЪ | fr̤̥t" | | f | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Khieru.png |
| | ХѢРЪ | xěr" | ? | x | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Otu.png |
| Ѡ ѡ | ОТЪ | ot" | | ō, w | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Tsi.png |
| Ц ц | ЦИ | ci | | c | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Chrivi.png |
| Ч ч | ЧРЬ'Ь | čr̤̥vǐ | | č, ch | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Sha.png |
| | ША | ša | | š, sh | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Shta.png |
| Щ щ | ШТА | šta | | št, sht, šč, shch | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yeru.png |
| | ѤРЪ | jer" | | ", u: | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yery.png |
| Ы ы | ѤРЫ | jerū | | ū | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yeri.png |
| Ь ь | ѤРЬ | jerǐ | | ǐ, i: | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yati.png |
| | ЯТЬ | jatǐ | | ě, je | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yu.png |
| Ю ю | Ю | ju | | ju | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Ya.png |
| Я я | (И)Я | ja | | ja | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yusu_Maliy.png |
| Ѧ ѧ | ѦСЪ | ęs" | | ę, ẽ | | See note 3 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yusu_Maliy_Yotirovaniy.png |
| Ѩ ѩ | ѨСЪ | jęs" | | ję, jẽ | | See note 4 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yusu_Bolshiy.png |
| Ѫ ѫ | ѪСЪ | ǫs" | | ǫ, õ | | See note 5 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Yusu_Bolshiy_Yotirovaniy.png |
| Ѭ ѭ | ѬСЪ | jǫs" | | jǫ, jõ | | See note 6 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Ksi.png |
| | КСИ | ksi | | ks | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Psi.png |
| Ѱ ѱ | ПСИ | psi | | ps | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Fita.png |
| Ѳ ѳ | ФИТА | fita | | θ, th, T, F | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Izhitsa.png |
| Ѵ ѵ | ИЖИЦА | ižica | | ü | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Ye.png |
| Ѥ ѥ | (И)Ѥ | jeː | | jeː | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Dierv.png |
| Ћ ћ | "ѤР' | đerv, djerv | | đ, dj | | See note 7 |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_Tvrido_Otu.png |
| Ѿ ѿ | ОТЪ | ot" | | ōt, wt | |
 | Early_Cyrillic_letter_O.png |
| | See note 8 |
Notes
#
Zemlya: The first form developed into the second.#
Ouku: The first form developed into a vertical
ligature, shown in the second form.# : In
Russian, this glyph is called ЮСЪ МАЛЫЙ (jus" malūj).# : In
Russian, this glyph is called ЮСЪ МАЛЫЙ ЙОТИРО'АННЫЙ (jus" malūj jotirovannūj). This glyph is rare.# : In
Russian, this glyph is called ЮСЪ БОЛЬШОЙ (jus" bol'šoj). This glyph is rare.# : In
Russian, this glyph is called ЮСЪ БОЛЬШОЙ ЙОТИРО'АННЫЙ (jus" bol'šoj jotirovannūj). This glyph is rare.#
Đerv: This letter is present in the
Glagolitic alphabet, but its sound had disappeared by the time Cyrillic started to be used. In Russian,
Gherv or
Dzherv is only used in modern scientific texts where Cyrillic is used to transliterate Glagolitic; the character is found in some
Balkan languages, notably the
languages of the former Yugoslavia.#
Ornate omega: The name of this glyph is unknown; it would seem to be used in
interjections, especially before
vocatives.
Each letter also had a numeric value, inherited from the corresponding
Greek letter. A
titlo over a sequence of letters indicated their use as a number.
See Cyrillic numerals, Titlo.
Several
diacritics, adopted from
Polytonic Greek orthography, were also used (these may not appear correctly in all web browsers; they are supposed to be directly above the letter, not off to its upper right):
*
oksia, indicating a stressed syllable (
Unicode U+1FFD), similar to an
acute accent*
varia, indicating stress on the last syllable (U+1FEF), similar to a
grave accent*
kamora, indicating
palatalization (U+0484), similar to an inverted
breve*
dasy pneuma, rough breathing mark (U+0485)
*
zvatel'tse, or
psilon pneuma, soft breathing mark (U+0486)
*
titlo, indicating
abbreviations, or letters used as
numerals (U+0483)
*
trema, diaeresis (U+0308)
*
Combined
zvatel'tse and
oksia is called
iso.
*
Combined
zvatel'tse and
varia is called
apostrof.
Punctuation marks:
*
· ano teleia (U+0387), a middle dot used as a word separator
*
, comma (U+002C)
*
. full stop (U+002E)
*
։ Armenian full stop (U+0589), resembling a
colon*
Georgian paragraph separator (U+10FB)
*
triangular colon (U+2056, added in Unicode 4.1)
*
diamond colon (U+2058, added in Unicode 4.1)
*
quintuple colon (U+2059, added in Unicode 4.1)
*
; Greek question mark (U+037E), similar to a
semicolon*
! exclamation mark (U+0021)
*
Glagolitic alphabet*
Bosnian Cyrillic*
Modern Cyrillic alphabet*
Reforms of Russian orthography*
Cyrillic numerals*
Titlo*
Polytonic Greek orthography*
A Berdnikov and O Lapko, "Old Slavonic and Church Slavonic in TEX and Unicode", EuroTEX '99 Proceedings, September
1999 (
PDF)
*
DJ Birnbaum, "Unicode for Slavic Medievalists",
September 28,
2002 (
PDF)
*
M Everson and R Cleminson, "Final proposal for encoding the Glagolitic script in the UCS", Expert Contribution to the ISO N2610R,
September 4,
2003 (
PDF)
* V Lev, "The history of the Ukrainian script (paleography)", in
Ukraine: a concise encyclopædia, volume 1.
University of Toronto Press,
1963,
1970,
1982. ISBN 0802031056
* V Simovyc and JB Rudnyckyj, "The history of Ukrainian orthography", in
Ukraine: a concise encyclopædia, volume 1 (
op cit).
*
J Zamora, "Help me learn Church Slavonic", online*
Ukrainian Wikipedia, "Кирилиця" (Cyrillic)
